A Little Light Reading
by pagerunner
Summary: What happens when Shepard starts poking through the full extent of Thane's reading material onboard the Normandy - and discovers an interesting novel indeed. Thane/Shepard, set partway through ME2.


"Why do you keep books, Thane?"

Thane looked at Shepard curiously while she ran her fingertips over the datapad. He didn't keep many artifacts here in the life support room, but that one was indeed a permanent fixture, and she'd caught him looking through it several times before. "Seems to me," she went on mildly, "that once you've read them once, you wouldn't need to keep them around, exactly…."

Thane smiled. He was finding, oddly, that he was enjoying these little questionnaires of hers. Not for the first time, he decided to indulge her.

"I like to read," he said simply. "There's something… meditative about the experience. Yes, I can easily recall the words later - and I often do. But it's also easy that way to stay fixed in the exact thoughts and opinions I had the first time. Sometimes a fresh look can bring something new."

"I guess I get that," Shepard said. She picked up the datapad, skimming idly through titles. "And you've got a lot to analyze here. Philosophy, metaphysics, the sciences… you really don't go for light reading, do you?"

Thane, of course, remembered exactly what else was in the list. "Keep scrolling."

She raised an eyebrow and did. "Ah, here we go. Here's some novels." She scooted herself onto a ledge, sitting more comfortably. "Asari literature, turian adventure serials - you know, I think I've read that one - and…."

She trailed off. Thane could guess what she'd landed upon. He kept on smiling, but stayed silent.

"Your latest bookmark," she said at last, "is in _Portraits of Passion?"_

Shepard was staring at him now, looking both skeptical and strangely amazed at him. He spread his hands in a shrug. Shepard lowered the datapad and gave him an even more pointed look.

"No, really. Let me process this. Because I spent two years dead and even _I _heard about this book. The epic, erotic adventures of a couple - oh, what was the tagline…." She scrolled up. "Transcending the boundaries of species, space and time to find true satisfaction in… seriously, you're _reading _this?"

"Research," he said mildly.

She still had one eyebrow lifted. In a sideways sort of symmetry, the opposite corner of her mouth quirked up in a smile. "Research."

"I haven't completed the entire novel, but I understand there's a drell-human liaison in later chapters…."

"So. It's a matter of… personal interest."

"Perhaps."

He could see her take that in. She shifted a little where she sat, but kept a straight face, as if trying not to show she'd just felt something. "Still," she said. "You could have skipped straight to that chapter, if that's all you're after. From the looks of it, you're working your way through the entire thing."

He didn't move, didn't even shrug. He just waited her out, because she'd lifted the datapad again.

"Let's see where you left off, shall we?" She stroked one finger across the screen. "Hmm. Our heroes, Jania and Aran, are…. ah. Quite busy. With manual stimulation. And what a place to leave her hanging, Thane."

"Remind me."

"Um… don't you know already?"

"Like I said. Fresh perspective," he said, deliberately letting his voice drop low.

Shepard definitelyshivered then. But she lowered her gaze and read aloud regardless. "Where exactly did you leave the marker… ah. 'His deft fingers touched her nether lips' - oh, God, I hate that phrase -"

He chuckled. "Keep going."

She shook her head, but did. "-and parted her moist flesh. She'd thought he might tease her open, take it slow and make her beg, but instead he thrust his fingers inside with so much force that it proved how much he actually wanted to do the same with his cock. She quivered around him, crying out, because now she wanted it as much as she knew he did…."

Thane tried to keep his face impassive. He knew perfectly well it wasn't deathless prose. But there was something about hearing it in Shepard's voice that… elevated the material.

As well as a few other things.

"'Adan,' she cried out…" Shepard continued. She paused. "Wait, wasn't his name Aran?"

"It wasn't particularly well edited."

"That much is obvious. Um… well, this part's pretty plain. 'Fuck me,' she demanded. 'Not just with your hands. I want to feel you….'"

Thane had actually read ahead a few paragraphs on this page. "No," he said roughly, standing in for Aran. "You're not making demands of me yet."

He had, as he'd hoped, hit _exactly _the right pitch. Shepard's lips had parted, and she gave him a slow, hooded look. "You want to tell me how to read this, too?"

He smiled at her, slow and subtle. "I just want you to continue."

Shepard arched her brow again. "Jania pushed herself into his hand, trying to urge him to move faster." She was flicking her gaze between the datapad and him. "But he moved at his own… torturous… pace."

Thane looked at her, and saw how she'd squeezed her thighs together, just a little. Inevitably, he remembered how her own flesh there had felt beneath his touch. He rubbed his thumb against his middle fingers, imagining a different kind of pressure entirely.

"He explored her," Shepard read softly, "and she felt the sweet pain of every stroke while he stretched her open. Two fingers. Three. He pushed in harder, making her squeal… God, isn't there a better word than 'squeal'?…"

"It doesn't matter," he murmured, realizing he was leaning forward.

She stared at him. "Making her _moan," _Shepard said this time, her own voice starting to take on the same quality. She was right. That was better. "And she told him in lustful gasps exactly what she wanted."

Thane warmed at the sound of her voice. "And what exactly did she want?"

Shepard slowly set down the datapad.

"She wanted him to stop playing games," she said, stretching it out, "and do more than just tease her with words and suggestions. And with terrible, terrible books."

Her own fingers had gone to her clothes. As Thane watched, she tugged down the zipper on her trousers with a slow, rough-sounding grind.

"Although I wouldn't mind finding out if there was _some _merit to that scene," she told him. "Just in… more practical terms."

Thane got to his feet. Three stealthy steps later - he watched her breathing pick up as he paced closer - he was before her, looking down at her upturned face. And the curves of her breasts. And how her fingertips had slid inside her loosened trousers.

His hand tingled as he slid it in to join hers. The fabric there was deliciously warm and damp to the touch. Shepard's eyelids fluttered shut as his fingers slowly stroked her.

"Merit," he echoed warmly. "Indeed."

"Mmh." She wriggled her hips, first for more pressure, second to give him room to tug her clothes lower. "And just think. We haven't even gotten to the human-drell parts of that book yet."

"I did peek," he whispered.

"Naughty." She laughed softly, even as she arched into his touch and sighed. "Find anything good?"

He smiled against her lips. "We can find out together."

"Now that's my kind of research," Shepard agreed.

And with that, she pulled him into a deep kiss, one that was better than anything in all the chapters of that book combined.


End file.
